The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-10-26

medium height, with broad shoulders and a
massive head Iss face is large, beardless,
squarely cut, with beaming, blush gray eyes,
and his countenance IL bright, attractive and
very winning Time has made inroads on
his hair, and his forehead will soon extend
from his eyelashes 10 the base OF his brain.
He is a wonderfully clever mimic, and he can
screw his face into more shapes that either
Sol Smith Russell or Adonis Dixey Mr.
Field is domestic in his habits, and there is a
wife and four young Fields in his delightful
Chicago home.
At an early age his mother died and the
embryo humorist was sent 20 Amherst,
Mas. where he was reared under the strict
moral training of a devoted aunt He fin
shed h, academic education when II years
OF age His father died soon after, and he
was taken west After two years in the
Galesburg MS college, be completed his
education at the University Of Missouri
When he became OF age he received about
$4,000 from his fathers estate. In ISL be
went 10 Europe, spending months roaming
over the continental countries In few
years time his large fortune melted away,
and he entered the profession Of journalism,
doing his first work as a reporter on the IT.
Louis papers Later he found employment
on the Kansas %ty and Denver press, win
ming his spurs in the latter city Then he
came 10 Chicago. His literary reputation
has been made in the past dozen years He
is regarded 10y many as one Of the very fore
most Of Americas younger verse makers.
His verses cover a very wide range-in fact,
from the most grOtesque burlesque 10 the
most sublime sentiment His Satirical and
humorous paragraphs have been quoted for
the past half dozen years from one end of the
country to the other Mr.. Fields copy is a
study His writing is as clear and beautiful
as copper plate, and 50 fine that be can read
lily write "a twenty verse, eighty line poem on
an ordinary postal card
Mr.. Field and Opie Read are my warm
friends, yet they are totally dissmilar in
appearance, habits and tastes. Mr.. Field is
dressy, likes society and has the surface APP
pearance Of a man Of the world Read looks
more like prosperous farmer than an ac-
cOmplished newspaper man. He is six feet
two inches tall, large ia proportion, with
stopped shoulders, a great big head full OF
horse sense, which is running over with hair
that refuses to acknowledge conventional
combing. He dislikes society, is devoted to
his wife and two children, and loves his
great big briar root Arkansas pipe next TO
his family He scorns dress suits and is
constantly lodging the village maiden
who, he alleges, makes him very, very weary.
His dark brown eyes are ever smiling and
his heavy, dropping mustache is full Of good
nature He has been a close student all his
life, and his range OF reading has been won
derfully wide He is eminently a child Of
nature and is indeed the last OF his race.
When Opie Read dies one Of the brightest
and most Enthusiastically American hui
morists Of the western type will cease to ex-
ist His character dialect sketches, his breezy
paragraphs and his wonderfully clever stories
are familiar 10 newspaper readers everywhere.
lie is one OF the truest and most natural men
ever met He is slowly adding the finishing
touches 10 book that ~ destined 20 create
sensation when it appears. twill be novel
II 800 pages, and is called the Backlog 1t
is story Of western life, and every charac-
ter in il is from real life Mr. Read has re-
written the story four times and still he is
not satisfied with it.
Mr. Read is 81 years OF age He was born
in Gallatin, Tenn, where his aged mother
still resides He did his first newspaper work
in Franklin, KY, and has been connected at